Mer­i­tas Guide to Doing Busi­ness in Aus­tralia and New Zealand

Swaab is a mem­ber firm of the glob­al Mer­i­tas net­work. Mer­i­tas has recent­ly released its Guide to Doing Busi­ness in Aus­tralia and New Zealand in Eng­lish and Man­darin.

This guide is intend­ed to pro­vide prac­ti­cal and use­ful insights into the 10 most com­mon ques­tions fac­ing for­eign investors and businesses: 

1. What role does the gov­ern­ment play in approv­ing and reg­u­lat­ing for­eign direct investment? 
2. Can for­eign investors con­duct busi­ness with­out a local part­ner? If so, what cor­po­rate struc­ture is most com­mon­ly used? 
3. How does the gov­ern­ment reg­u­late com­mer­cial joint ven­tures between for­eign investors and local firms? 
4. What laws influ­ence the rela­tion­ship between local agents or dis­trib­u­tors and for­eign companies? 
5. What steps does the gov­ern­ment take to con­trol merg­ers and acqui­si­tions with for­eign investors of its nation­al com­pa­nies or over its nat­ur­al resources and key sec­tors (e.g., ener­gy and telecommunications)? 
6. How do labor statutes reg­u­late the treat­ment of local employ­ees and expa­tri­ate workers?
7. How do local banks and gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tors deal with the treat­ment and con­ver­sion of local cur­ren­cy, repa­tri­a­tion of funds over­seas, let­ters of cred­it, and oth­er basic finan­cial transactions?
8. What types of tax­es, duties and levies should a for­eign investor expect to encounter?
9. How com­pre­hen­sive are the intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty laws? Do local courts and tri­bunals enforce them objec­tive­ly, regard­less of the nation­al­i­ty of the parties?
10. If a com­mer­cial dis­pute aris­es, will local courts or arbi­tra­tion offer a more ben­e­fi­cial forum for dis­pute res­o­lu­tion to for­eign investors?

For infor­ma­tion or assis­tance, please con­tact Swaab Attor­neys Cor­po­rate Part­ners Alis­tair Jaque and Michael Phillips.